Nov 13, 2009

Lots of lovely leaves around to make beautiful decorations with! Whooo!

This activity was really easy and I always like the art activities where kids can work on one thing collaboratively. Especially something that is all about the process and not how well you can draw etc, so the three year olds were able to contribute just as much as the five year olds and you can't even tell which bits of the art work were done by which kids. It's just one lovely mural that they all had a hand in producing.

I used painters tape to stick a big strip of butchers block paper to the kitchen floor. I used regular packing tape a while back and had to resort to scrubbing the floor with isopropyl alchohol to get it off, which I wasn't expecting. Here's my older daughter helping me to cut bits of tape.

One that was done, the kids positioned the leaves with the veins facing up. We took our time and arranged them so they filled the paper, then rolled over another layer of the butcher block paper and taped that down too.

A few days ago we made some autumn coloured crayon cakes. Crayon cakes are ace, we've been making them ever since the girls were teeny, because they are so much easier for littlies to get a grip on when they start learning to make marks on paper. They are even better for leaf rubbing!

The kids had at the paper with the crayons for about 20 minutes, all haphazard with the different colours. The shapes of the tiled floor came through in the rubbings too, but it's not that distracting.

The leaf rubbings were rather pretty just on thier own, but I figured we could get another 20 minutes or so out of this activity, if I watered down some food colouring and let them paint over the rubbings to get a wax resist effect. They thought this was really cool, especially when the yellow rubbings showed through the darker food colouring.

We ended up with what I think are quite wonderful textures and colours. Here are a few close up pics to show you what I mean.

And here is our fall mural proudly in place in the kitchen. I thought about making it into a poster with "happpy thanksgiving" written on it, but really I don't want to cover up any of the leaf rubbings with text, so we'll make a separate banner and enjoy the mural as it is.

Love the rubbings. Never would have thought of the watered down food coloring! Our leaves are just starting to change, it's so late compared to what we are used to that I would love to celebrate it! What a great idea!

I love the mural. I enjoyed watching the boys do rubbings at tiger cubs this week, but this mural, made together and hanging on your wall, with the crayon marks glowing through the food coloring, is really gorgeous and takes it another step. Thanks! Beth

Absolutely fabulous. I wish I could have been there playing! This is one of the best leaf projects I have seen this season. So simple and so beautiful when completed and hung. You have given your children a treasured memory they willnever forget.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by to say they liked the leaf mural. The kids are still very proud of it.

Rachel, I just used sticky tape to stick it to the wall. Not very professional I'm afraid. I was thinking when I take it down I may stick some contact paper on the back to make it last longer, and varnish the front to stop the food colourings from fading too much. Our snail art from 18 months ago was done with food colouring and that has faded quite a lot after being up in the kitchen so long.

That is absolutely stunning and looks beautiful in your dining room. What a great piece of art that you can treasure for years. My daughter is too young for this now, but I'll keep this on my list of things to do.

This is fantastic! Your blog is amazing. We live in Costa Rica and have a very creative household but your blog is truly inspirational. Should you ever publish this into a book I will be the first in line to buy a copy for us and for all our friends.- Jenna and family

Love Love Love this. My little girl is too young for this now - but she already loves crayons and scribbling in her coloring books. I'll bookmark this post and when she's a bit older we will definitely try it. LOVE IT!

Revisited this project this autumn since it came out so beautifully last year. The paper we used became brittle and got torn so I decided to try white cotton sheeting. The results are equally beautiful. It will make a gorgeous runner for our table this Thanksgiving.

I was really juiced about this idea (I had 8 five year olds over this afternoon!). Each had papers, leaves, crayons. Rubbings went fine. Then the paint... but the wax effect didn't happen almost at all!

I think the problem was... these are washable crayons!

I tried to write words on a page with heavy thick crayon, then paint with the watered down food coloring - and some of the letters I wrote just dissolved and disappeared.

You have been featured at Craftionary for your great leaf inspired idea. Great idea to keep kids busy and have a fab wall art. :) Come check it out:http://craftionary.blogspot.com/2011/07/wednesday-wordplay-leaf-inspirations.html

I will appreciate, if you grab your featured button and place it some where on your blog.

I'm writing because I run a sensory site and am looking for great ideas for Thanksgiving, like this leaf rubbing idea. And as any parent, we’re looking for terrific Thanksgiving crafts and ideas for kids with Sensory Processing Disorder and on the Autism Spectrum. Would you add a link to a craft idea or two on our blog? Here's the link to share and get more traffic to your site… http://thesensoryspectrumblog.com/2012/11/04/calling-all-bloggers-fun-family-thanksgiving-crafts-ideas-wanted/

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